@stellabelle that's my take on it also, getting new blood in steem/steemit with a good retention rate was and is the most important part of growth as is being user friendly. Most people don't understand crypto and telling them "you have to buy steem to do anything" isn't going to force them to buy steem, its going to force them to go elsewhere. This is what happens when you have people running things that are out of touch with the people. We see this all the time in politics. Think simplicity if you want to grow out to the masses. I say roll back to hf19 and re think (talk with the people in steem) how to go forward.